I've been learning Japanese for a few months because reasons. And I figured I might watch some anime as a bit of practice, because cute girls are good motivation. I've actually never truly watched much anime before, only a couple of Ghibli movies, but since June or so I've watched 7 single-season series (I can't get myself to start watching the multi-hundred episode juggernauts) and it's been... an interesting ride. Maybe because I go into the shows blind and tend to stumble into them via funny gifs or youtube mashups people show me. Presumably there are better methods. I might post a summary later of my impressions of the 6 first series I saw.
The last one I saw though seems to be mostly unknown but is by far the best one of the lot so far, so I needed to vent about it somewhere.
It's called Soranowoto (Sound of the Sky) and brought out lots of heavy, unexpected feels. It's mainly about a girl in something resembling late 19th century Europe, who's joined the military because she heard she could learn to play the trumpet there for free, something she's wanted after seeing an officer playing it once when she was lost (plus she has perfect pitch). After basic training she's transferred to a border town with a largely ceremonial guard post who happen to need an extra trumpetist. Naturally, it's an all female unit. Seems so very cheerful and cute, yet it's the most thought- and heartstring-provoking thing I've seen in a while.
Maybe I'm just simple. It would be interesting to know if anyone agree with my sentiment or if the consensus is it's dumb and cliched. It's 13 episodes so it's not a big undertaking to watch. If nothing else the visuals and sparse but well-applied music are prime goods. I even watched every intro without skipping past (the outro is a slightly different story).
This is (sneakily) the world of Fallout in many ways, but unlike the typical post-apocalyptic setting it's not presented in a barrage of misery and dreariness., instead leaving it as an undercurrent of regret and anxiety. That's probably what I find so impressive and brilliant; it's like the way it's all cheerful and peaceful and cute most of the time makes the grim and dark bits they drip on you hit so much harder. Like when they go looking for "ghosts" in an abandoned building in the base and they wonder if it's really the ruins of a school. All they seem to know about the concept is that schools like it once existed, back when everything was better.
I also like how they never really try to explain the world, leaving most of it up for imagination. It's a bit like Ghibli in that way. The country we get to see is called Helvetia (modern Switzerland), but there are a lot of things indicating it's not necessarily set there. The culture is a mishmash of southeast Europe (bootleg calvados ho!) and Japan. The ruined school the base is built on is a typical Japanese one, but the surviving written language is French while Japanese kanji are only used by some parts of the population for names. The "enemy" calls itself the Holy Roman Empire with German as the language, but the one soldier from the HRE we see has an Arabic name and has olive skin, suggesting that it too is the remnant of various cultures. My interpretation is that destruction of the world has led to gradual migration to the parts that are still inhabitable, and surviving legends from the old civilizations have led to establishment of nations built around those legends, and conflict is fueled in part by schisms between religions. The rest of the fuel seem to be warmongering generals on both sides, the actual leaders don't seem too keen on continuing war. It's also clear there are no good guys.
The nature of the downfall is never explained. It seems like there was the standard cataclysmic war between advanced civilizations that destroyed much of the world, and the survivors have continued fighting until everything has regressed to a point were horn signalers are the typical means of battleline communications, and the advanced spider mechs of the old civilization have been replaced by primitive imitations. Music is largely gone apart from what's stored in the spider mech's mp3 player. The seas are empty of life and the country borders a huge wasteland. It is quietly mentioned that the world is slowly dying for good.
The legend of Seize is the confusing part. "The spider the fire maidens befriended" fits with the mech at the fortress, but then there is that huge fossil beneath the lake...
Also I've never teared up to Amazing Grace before.
Apparently I am a soppy sentimental.
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Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3135298 times)